Weber 5E7M - Saint style!!!

[Modern Saint]

Had a few hours to work on the amp build - Attached the grounding buss and associated components.

Hopefully I can do more tomorrow but that all depends on what is going on.

 

[Mark Wein]

 

[Modern Saint]

Well on Saturday I got a chance to work more on the chassis wiring. I am still waiting for a few parts as well will be ordering a couple of more odds and ends such as tubes. I have the tubes that came with the kit for when I fire it up but will change to better quality tubes as well as different types.

PS Tranny Hooked Up

On/Off and Standby Controls Wired

Output Xfmr wiring hooked up. Speaker output setup for 8 ohms.

Input Jacks awaiting

Close Up of the Control Panel.

Close Up of the PS Xfmr Wiring

 

[Prages]

You're doing a really neat job. Love the heat shrink on all the connections. I didn't do that good a job.

 

[Modern Saint]

Thanks bro! This has been a fun build. Unfortunately I work on it only on the weekends when I can. I still have some parts on order that should arrive this week and will be ordering a few more items as well. I will be using different colored wire for the input jacks for future troubleshooting should I need to.

As for the heatshrink, that is just a habit. All my homemade cable have the heatshrink and some of my cables have lasted over 25 years. I use 4 conductor/1 Shield Canare cable with Switchcraft plugs. My mic cables are made the same way as well and have endoured time.

 

[Modern Saint]

Got to work on the build so more tonight. Now all that I need is a few more parts and the final assembly comes into play. If I play my cards right, I will have a new amp between Christmas and New Year's for completion. I will be using standoffs to raise the board to keep everything neat. Also final grounding ties are now being setup as well into sections for Power and Preamp sections and PS Section. Don't want any ground loops.

Input Section fully wired

Input - Control Section ready

Output Tubes Sockets hooked up to Output Xfmr

Overall Wiring view 12-5-2010; Everything is cleaning up just nicely. This unit is now board ready.

 

[Prages]

Very nice!

I didn't use standoffs on mine. Just used the insulating sheet between the board and the chassis and screwed it right to the chassis.

 

[ellengtrgrl]

Oooh! Looking nice! I can see using standoffs. I know I would. It looks neater, and is an addtional safeguard to prevent grounding to the chassis. From what I've heard, the 5E7 circuit can get pretty dirty when the amp is cranked. But at that point it's seriously loud. I Billy Zoom told me one time on the Gretsch Pages that he's not a fan of master volume circuits, but prefers instead, power scaling. I wonder if a power scaling circuit could be easily adapted to tweed type amps?

 

[Modern Saint]

Very nice!

I didn't use standoffs on mine. Just used the insulating sheet between the board and the chassis and screwed it right to the chassis.

Thanks! After pondering it when I got the kit and read other builds, I wanted to elevate the board for 1) protection and 2) security and 3) Neatness. I just didn't like the screw it in method.

Oooh! Looking nice! I can see using standoffs. I know I would. It looks neater, and is an addtional safeguard to prevent grounding to the chassis. From what I've heard, the 5E7 circuit can get pretty dirty when the amp is cranked. But at that point it's seriously loud. I Billy Zoom told me one time on the Gretsch Pages that he's not a fan of master volume circuits, but prefers instead, power scaling. I wonder if a power scaling circuit could be easily adapted to tweed type amps?

Thanks Ellen! What you mentioned is exactly what I was going for. With this amp, I really want to get to the edge of the breakup point and not go over it. That is sound that I am envisioning on this guy. I have played through a 5E3 that sounds awesome in the breakup mode but the output tubes are 6V6's. This SOB will be freakin' loud with 5881's if I go for the full dirty sound.

 

[Prages]

Yeah, my 5E7M sounds great cranked all the way up, but it is pretty loud. Not completely over the top loud like my old JCM 800 was, but definitely louder than I could get away with on most stages. Here it is cranked all the way up...no pedals.

Rockin' Is Ma Business

 

[Modern Saint]

Yeah, my 5E7M sounds great cranked all the way up, but it is pretty loud. Not completely over the top loud like my old JCM 800 was, but definitely louder than I could get away with on most stages. Here it is cranked all the way up...no pedals.

Rockin' Is Ma Business

Yep - that sound is just killer. Gotta agree with you on the JCM800 as mine went into semi-retirement when I got the Jet City's. The JC amps 1) are lighter to carry and 2) I can crank those mother's without ear bleeding volumes.

I am going to love this Tweed Bandmaster sound as I will get a lot of omph on the warm clean edge (no U2 reference) break type sound.

With the Isocab coming, it will be killer for recordings as well. I would love to find a cheap Epi Jr and load it with a Mercury Magnetics tranny and fire into the isocab. I will also be overhauling my Silverface Vibro Champ as well. Woo - hoo.

 

[Modern Saint]

Well I have been slow on this build as 1 - I have been careful to get it right the first time and 2 - Needed to find uninterupted time to work on this project. Anyway here is my progress. I have a few more items to wire up and then will fire it up for the smoke test. Once past I will bias the output tube section and then await the tubes that I want to install.

The Weber board is installed.

Volume and Tone Controls Wired

Preamp Tubes 1 and 2 Wired

I am looking forward to finishing and soon playing this baby.:cheese:

 

[Prages]

I'm looking forward to you finishing and playing it too. You have the patience of Job.

 

[Chad]

Damn, nice build. I agree with Prages. You have some patience.

 

[Modern Saint]

I'm looking forward to you finishing and playing it too. You have the patience of Job.

Damn, nice build. I agree with Prages. You have some patience.

Thanks guys!

Alot of it is due to the time factor. I work on the amp about once a week when I am not disturbed for 3-4 hours sitting in front of the idiot box. This is usually when my wife is out scrapbooking with the girls. My son just stays in his room on the computer and talks to his friends or girls.

Since I am not in a rush and I have my standard rigs to play gigs with, this allows me the time to get it right (I hope). What I mean by right is even though I have worked on electronics for years, this is my first amp build. Also when it comes to servicing my own amp in the future, I will know the test points, where everything goes and just enjoy the love of building this beast. The worst thing one can have, is a box full of spaghetti and then troubleshoot in that mess. I did that for a living for 20 years and that was not fun.

 

[Modern Saint]

Well as this chapter gets closer to closing, let me fill you in on my progress. I took my amp to an acoustic jam a couple of weeks ago to have a friend check out my circuitry. I was given the thumbs up and was given the blessing to fire it up when I got home. When the jam finished, I headed on home. As I began to unload the few items out of my truck to take in the house, the amp was little off balance and :fan: Boom, boom it fell out of the chassis - Fucken' Shit - I replied. As I took the amp in the house to view what was damaged I found that my fuse holder broke. Now I gotta wait to get another fuse holder.

So last week comes along and I never bothered to pick one up on Saturday at my electronic supply house. I went on Sunday instead to find out that the store was closed. An idea strikes - ahh Radio Shack. Go to Radio Shack to pic up a fuse holder - yes - they have one so I take it home. I begin to wire it up and fire up the soldering iron. All set to solder and snap - the fucken holder snaps in half. That is what I get for buying Radio Shack crap.

So in the middle of the week I picked up two more fuse holders from the electronics store and tonight I finally wired that baby up. Used the lamp limiter and did the preliminary tests.

With only the copper cap installed, I turned the "Power Switch" on - Yes
Next I turned the "Stand By" on - Yes
So I measured some voltages and notated them.

I turned everything off and installed the tubes and hooked up a speaker cab. Got my guitar and ran a cable to the amp.
Power On - wait - Stand By On - sweet - increase volume control - Yes - SOUND!!! Woo Hoo

:rawk:

As I start to mess for a few seconds, a rumbling howl begins. Shit.... Shut the Stand By off. Turn amp off. Wait a few minutes and try again - howl resumes. Dang It..... I remember reading the term "NBF" - Negative Feedback. Even Prages had the same issue. So my next duty will be is to reverse the primary leads on the Output Tranny. I will do that tomorrow and fire it up again. That should solve the issue and we should be good to go with biasing the output tubes. I am happy though as now I have sound and my labor of love is almost over. I will soon start to reap the benefits of a custom built Saint amp - Wooo Hooo!

The following pics show the remainder of my build.

V3 Wired Up

Fixed Bias Adjustment Installed

Chassis - Right Side

Chassis - Middle

Chassis - Left Side

Top Shot - Front

Top Shot - Back

3/4 Front Shot

3/4 Rear Shot

Light Bulb Limiter

The Power is On - Woo Hoo!!!

 

[telecaster911]

Awesome, cant wait for some clips

 

[Prages]

Yep, I also had to swap the wires on the OT to get rid of the rumble. It was like this.

Low volume: weedly weedly wee...sounds great.

Medium volume: weedly weedle wee, dig in: weedly weedly-ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, hit power switch.

Swapping the wires cured it though.

 

[Modern Saint]

Well after swapping the brown and blue wires on the OT. All went well - fired the unit up and we have sound. Nice tone to boot. Placed the unit in standby and now for the fun stuff. Voltage measurements and biasing.

Pull out my laptop and meter out to go to the next step. So while the laptop is firing up I start to measure some voltages on the power supply feeds - hmmmm - - 370VDC. Pull out my Groove Tube book and look at the 5E7 schematic - hmmmm - supposed to be around 410VDC. Measure the 1 ohm resistor on V5 I get - 45mV - not bad a little low. Measure the 1 ohm resistor on V4 - 110mV - WTF - shut the standby off.

First I am thinking what did I fuck up...., keep calm. So today I am going borrow a meter from work to verify. I will also stop by to see if I can get a 1% 1 ohm resistor. The ones I have in there are 5% jobbers. Gotta give it whirl as it is troubleshooting time.

Should've ordered some resistors when I placed the new tube order for the amp - Dang. On order are 2 - 12AY7's for V1, Matched set of Tung Sol 5881's and a 5U4GB Rectifier. I found in my stash an RCA 12AT7, some RCA12AX7's and RCA12AU7's. Woohoo NOS stash.

Maintain Saint, maintain - we are almost there......

 

[Prages]

Were those voltages across the 1ohm resistor with the stock tubes that come from Weber? If so, that's probably what's causing a lot of the discrepency. They don't even attempt to match the output tubes. Between the tubes being severely mismatched and the 5% resistors, I can see the voltages being way off like that.